Leaderboard

01. Richlands / Union 02. Bluefield / Graham 03. Graham / Richlands 04. Ridgeview / Union 05. Va High / Richlands 06. Chilhowie / George Wythe 07. Bluefield / Richlands 08. Giles / Graham 09. Galax / Grayson County 10. Abingdon / Ridgeview Games vs. out of area opponents Bluefield / Lord Botetourt Union ./ Morristown West Richlands / Blacksburg Va High / Tenn High Galax / Glenvar

On the eve of one of the best days of the year, there is excitement in the air. I know we're still a few weeks away from Game Day, but I believe now is as good a time as any to get our Top 10 lists rolling(unless the mods had other plans, or anyone really objects). If no one objects, I wouldn't mind keeping tabs on the sites' list throughout the season, as tallied by the votes of all members. If everyone is ok with this, we can give this preseason list a deadline of 11:59 pm on Sunday 8/19, with the final results being posted on Monday morning, 8/20, the final Monday before Opening Week. Voting can be done on a 1-10 scale. 1st place votes equal 10 pts, 2nd place equals 9 points, and so on. Be really brave and make your list now with no changes, or change as many times as your heart desires, by the deadline. No need to add another post, just edit your initial post. After Opening Week, we can keep the deadlines on each following Sunday night at 11:59 pm, with the new weekly list being posted on Monday mornings, following the previous week's games. Each week's list will be a seperate thread, thru the end of the regular season, so not to cause any confusion. I will cast the first stone; 1) Bluefield 2) Graham 3) Ridgeview 4) VHS 5) Union 6) Richlands 7) Chilhowie 8) Grayson County 9) Abingdon 10) Galax On the bubble (no points); Fort Chiswell, Tazewell, Lee Keep it civil, fellas. These lists are OPINIONS. You know what they say about opinions and a**holes. The preseason list will more than likely differ greatly from Week 11's list.

Day 1. Get hype.

The day has come. Two-a-days are underway this morning and the 2018 season is here. Just like the teams on the field, our podcast has changed a bit. Firstly, we have a new host site. Head on over to http://coalfieldsports.tk/pod/ to find the podcast home! You WILL have to resubscribe to the pod, but you can do so on that page by clicking the podcasting service you usually go with. Google Play is still down right now. We are working to fix that. Also, look around the new Coalfield Sports site there. We have a lot of content that is meant to be a sister site to this one, SWVA Sports. We are expanding to two pods a week, and with that, we will be doing a weekly offensive and defensive player of the week series. We will announce the players eligible on the 1st pod and then announce the winner on the 2nd pod each week. We also have the Top 10 Poll that comes straight from this site. Brady, EH31 and I will be writing little articles like game previews and such over there as well. We will also post those here. If you guys wanna write for your team, let us know. We'd love to make that a cool local feature. So scroll around and enjoy that site. And invite your friends to join the boards here and help grow our family. Excited for what the new season holds!!!

They probably burned it...

Well done Ryan. I'm glad you had plenty of material to use of the Tazewell game and not the Graham game. Lol

I can't speak for our entire fan base, but I feel comfortable enough to say that I'm not one to do that, no matter how things are going. Im usually pretty consistant when talking about the Bearcats. My posts during my tenure here, prove that. With that said, I'm not necessarily "happy" that Garrett left. I wish him well. He was a nice guy, who was always good to my kid. It's always tough to lose a coach at this stage in the game. He's a good guy, whose system/playcalling was just not a great fit for our athletes. Think square peg, round hole. His system/playcalling fits personnel like he had when Sturgill was QB, Yates was WR, etc., hence why Abingdon was a scoring machine then. I think this was a great hire for Abingdon. I believe our new OC will breathe new life into this team. I have known him and his family for nearly 25 years. He was a star athlete growing up, and is an even better coach. Last year's success was mainly because of our defense, which should be even better this year. Our defense carried us all year. Even in the shalacking we took in Bluefield, our defense did as good as can be expected, when the offense turns the ball over 4 times in their own territory, throws a pick six, and after tying the game early, we decide to kick deep to a D1 prospect with 4.3 speed. Our offense became anemic against the better teams. Our leading rusher was only 3rd on the team in total carries. He lead the team in carries in 2 games, against Tn High and Abingdon, where the team scored a total of 5 TDs. He ran for 200 yds and 4 scores in those 2 games. I have a feeling this OC will take advantage of the fact that we have good depth in the skill positions this year.

That team did have some success but they also lost in the first round of the playoffs on their home field when they were expected to make it a lot further. In my opinion Abingdon is in a tough situation. They aren't strong and physical enough to compete with the Mountain District teams when they switched to the ground game offense. On the other hand if they go spread they don't have the athletes to win at the 3A level. Not sure what their identity needs to be to win in the Mountain District and the 3A playoffs.

(1) Bluefield (2) Pulaski Co. (3) Graham (4) Richlands (5) Radford (6) Virginia High (7) Union (8) Ridgeview (9) Chilhowie (10) Galax will definitely change after attending scrimmages

(1) Bluefield (2) Graham (3) Richlands (4) Ridgeview (5) Virginia High (6) Union (7) Pulaski Co. (8) Chilhowie (9) Grayson Co. (10) Galax

1. Bluefield - An amazing amount of returning letter men (especially in the trenches) 2. Union - much more talented than people think 3. Giles 4. Richlands 5. Virginia High 6. Graham 7. Marion 8. Ridgeview 9. Pulaski County 10. Abingdon (tie) 10. James Monroe (tie)

1) Bluefield 2) Graham 3) Ridgeview 4) Richlands 5) Union 6) Chilhowie 7) Grayson County 8) Galax 9) Virginia High 10) Lee Fort Chiswell would have definitely made my top 10 had they not been thrust into the impossible position of replacing a head coach 3 weeks before the beginning of practice. I still think they have a lot of talent but might struggle early until the new staff can get a foothold on where they are.

1. Graham 2. Ridgeview 3. Union 4. Chilhowie 5. Richlands 6. VHS 7. Abingdon 8. Galax 9. J I Burton 10. Grayson Co./Marion - Tie

Amen!

Great show guys!

No problem. The Fall Break deal is still fairly new. Dealing with the local Minor League team's schedule has been going on since way before my time. We had to move our Benefit Game against Union to Thursday this year because of it.

Thank you for that. We just kind of thought maybe it was due to wanting to get folks who may come out from other schools on a Thursday.

1. Bluefield 2. Ridgeview 3. Graham 4. Union 5. Richlands 6. VHS 7. Galax 8. Marion 9. Chillhowie 10. Grayson Co.

Good job on the podcast. Some (hopefully) helpful info on why VHS has been playing Thursday games. This will be the 2nd year in a row that VHS plays Graham on Thursday in October because the Bristol City School System starts their Fall Break on the next day. Also, early season games in Bristol are scheduled around the Bristol Pirates, as we share the clubhouse, concession supplies/food, and of course, parking. Sometimes, like last year in our opener, we can't work around the day, so our kickoff will be pushed back an hour, to allow the Pirates' crowd to clear out.

Josh Wingate named head coach will run offense and Murdock defense coordinator. Fort will probably go back to div 1 2019 and will be loaded talent wise

He's been a fine coach for us in the past. I have no doubt he will again. It's going to take more than him. We know it, and he knows it.

This explains the early morning texts! 😆

Let’s see how long it takes all 3 fanbases to go off on how horrible everything is going.

Gate City fans, read this very slowly. Let it marinate into the very essence of your being.

Abingdon happy to get rid of Reed. VA High happy to break in a new OC. Gate City happy to get Reed. Everyone is happy in the preseason.

I don't see a school from WV beating the Beavers this year. Graham, Richlands, and Lord Botetourt have the best chances to win against the Beavers but still it will be tough. Hearing that the defense should be scary good this year. They have a pretty good shot of going back to back even with the Mookie and Truck now gone. I have said it before and I will say it again, Bluefield doesn't rebuild, they reload.